Brittany's Hope Foundation

As we are preparing to travel to bring Michael home, we are getting ready to send in funds for our matching grant from Brittany’s Hope. I just wanted to once again thank Brittany’s Hope for not only their $2,500 matching grant towards Michael’s adoption (www.brittanyshope.org/seedling/Grover), but also for the incredible work that they do advocating for orphans around the world. This foundation has been an absolute pleasure to work with and I am grateful for their dedication to these important little people and the families who are trying to bring them home.

The following story comes from the Brittany's Hope website and shares how and why the foundation was created.

“Brittany's Hope Foundation was created in January 2000 for the purpose of advocating for orphaned special needs children who are longing for the love of a family. Our foundation was inspired by our first adopted child, Brittany who we adopted when she was 12 years old. While Brittany was home for Christmas break in January 1999, during her senior year in college, her life was tragically cut short as a result of a car accident.

She was pursuing a career in social work and hoped to help waiting children find loving families. As we reflected upon the person that Brittany was and the work that she planned to do, we remembered a conversation she shared shortly before her death. She stated she "dreamed of a world where all children know the peace and love only a family can provide."

Although Brittany was unable to pursue her dreams, we wanted to honor her life by beginning the work she intended. As a result, Brittany's Hope Foundation was born. We believe every child deserves to know the love and security only a family can provide; our foundation reflects this passion. Through our work, we advocate for children who would likely spend their lives in an orphanage as a result of a disability or simply because they are older than the more desirable infant. Sometimes our advocacy means the difference between whether or not the child even survives, such as our heart baby cases. Although we are a small organization, we provide hope and love to children from around the world by helping them find their forever families.”

Brittany’s Hope Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) foundation. One hundred percent of all donations are used to provide adoption financial grants or fund humanitarian efforts that benefit the children who are left behind, arranging for surgeries, safe cribs, formula, and education and transitional housing for older orphans. To learn more, visit www.brittanyshope.org

Birthday and Article 5!

Many things have happened since our last post…including a NASTY computer virus that caused me to be without a computer for several weeks. The first event took place on April 7th. Our little Michael turned 8 years old. I wish that I could tell you that it was a happy celebration in our home, we tried to make it happy… but it just wasn’t. There were many tears as we sang “Happy Birthday” to his little picture and blew out his birthday candles on the cake. I was completely unaware, eight years ago, that clear on the other side of the world one of my precious sons had entered this life. I think the hardest part of Michael’s birthday this year was knowing that HE was completely unaware that he had eight people in Lehi, Utah who were celebrating his birth….celebrating that this extraordinary little boy had come to earth and was going to be part of their forever family. I can’t tell you how badly I wish that I had been there at Michael’s birth. I think of that often with not only him, but also with Jacob and Lauren. How much I would have loved to be there to hold them as newborns. I wish that I could have fed them, bathed them, been there for their first smile, first tooth, first step. That is the difficult part. So, we were absolutely devastated that we missed another of Michael’s birthdays but we anxiously look forward to his 9th birthday when we can celebrate his life TOGETHER!!

The second thing that has happened since our last post was that the Consulate issued our Article 5 on April 24th! It is now at the offices of the CCCWA and we are awaiting travel approval. We anticipate that this will be issued by mid May. This step is #16 on our Process List. I love checklists! They allow me to see progress! And the progress on this checklist is making me one happy mom!!